Number missing in mudslide falls to 30

Sunday

Mar 30, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2014 at 10:57 AM

DARRINGTON, Wash. - The number of those believed missing after a deadly Washington state landslide has plummeted to 30 because many people were found safe, authorities said late yesterday. Officials previously set the number of missing people at 90 but said they expected that figure to drop dramatically as they worked to find people and cross-referenced a list that included partial reports and duplicates.

DARRINGTON, Wash. — The number of those believed missing after a deadly Washington state landslide has plummeted to 30 because many people were found safe, authorities said late yesterday.

Officials previously set the number of missing people at 90 but said they expected that figure to drop dramatically as they worked to find people and cross-referenced a list that included partial reports and duplicates.

The confirmed death toll rose by one, to 18, said Jason Biermann, program manager at the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, at a briefing yesterday evening.

The search by heavy equipment, dogs and bare hands for victims from the slide was going “all the way to the dirt” as crews looked for anything to provide answers for family and friends a week after a small mountainside community was destroyed.

All work on the debris field halted briefly yesterday for a moment of silence to honor those lost. Gov. Jay Inslee had asked people across Washington to pause at 10:37 a.m., the time the huge slide struck on March 22, destroying a neighborhood in the community of Oso 55 miles northeast of Seattle. Authorities say they have found at least 25 bodies.

The huge wall of earth that crashed into the collection of homes followed weeks of heavy rain.

Among those missing are a man in his early 20s, Adam Farnes, and his mother, Julie.

“He was a giant man with a giant laugh,” Kellie Howe said of Adam Farnes. Howe became friends with him when he moved to the area from Alaska. She said Farnes was the kind of guy who would come into your house and help you do the dishes.

Farnes also played the banjo, drums and bass guitar, she said, and had been a telephone-line worker and a 911 dispatcher.

“He loved his music loud,” she said. “They still have not found him or his mom.”

Finding and identifying all the victims could stretch on for a long time, and authorities have warned that not everyone might be accounted for after one of the deadliest landslides in U.S. history.

Rescuers have given a cursory look at the entire debris field, said Steve Harris, division supervisor of the eastern incident-management team.

They are sifting through the rest of the fragments, looking for places where dogs should give extra attention. Only “a very small percentage” of the area has received the more-thorough examination, he said.

Dogs working four-hour shifts have been the most-useful tool, Harris said, but they’re getting hypothermic in the rain and muck.

“This is western Washington, folks,” Harris said.

Commanders are making sure that people have the right gear to stay safe in the rain and amid potentially hazardous materials, and they’re keeping a close eye on the river level to be sure no searchers are trapped by rising water.

At the debris site yesterday, Steve Mason, Snohomish County Fire District 1 battalion chief, said teams first do a hasty search of wreckage of homes they find. If nothing is immediately discovered, they do a more-detailed, forensic search.

“We go all the way to the dirt,” he said.

Crews also are collecting bags of personal belongings that are to be cleaned, sorted and, most likely, returned to families.

“What we found out here is everything from pictures to gun safes,” Mason said. “Anything you would have at your house.”

Crews pleaded with the public not to show up to try to help. Only local volunteers are being allowed to help rescuers.

Joe Wright of Darrington set up his tool-sharpening operation near the firehouse. He has been busy. In a little more than a day, he sharpened more than 150 chain-saw chains dulled by rocks and dirt, he estimated.

Mayor Dan Rankin said the community has been “changed forevermore.”

“It’s going to take a long time to heal,” Rankin said, “and the likelihood is. we will probably never be whole.”

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